Dynalist Mover for VS Code

Move the current line — or a multi-line selection — together with its indented child items up or down, bringing a Dynalist-like outliner editing experience to Visual Studio Code.

This is a VS Code port of the Dynalist Mover Obsidian plugin.

Why not just Alt+↑/Alt+↓?

VS Code's built-in Move Line Up/Down moves only the selected lines — it leaves indented children behind and drops the line into the middle of the next sibling block. Dynalist Mover treats a parent and all of its indented descendants as a single unit and jumps cleanly over neighboring blocks, just like an outliner.

When the current line has no children, the behavior is identical to a normal line move, so it's a safe drop-in superset.

Features

• Move blocks with children — moving a parent item carries all of its indented child items as one block.
• Works with any text — not limited to Markdown lists. Paragraphs, code, headings, anything.
• Selection preserved — the selection is kept after the move, so repeated key presses keep nudging the block.
• Indent-aware — child detection follows the editor's own Tab Size / Insert Spaces settings per file.
• Visual highlight — multi-line selections get a light blue line background, Dynalist-style (toggleable).

Usage

1. Place the cursor on a line, or select one or more lines.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+↑ / Ctrl+Shift+Alt+↓ (on macOS Cmd+Shift+Alt+↑/↓), or run the commands from the Command Palette:
   • Dynalist Mover: Move selected lines up
   • Dynalist Mover: Move selected lines down

The default keys are deliberately chosen to not collide with any built-in VS Code shortcut.

Prefer Alt+↑/↓?

Alt+↑/↓ is the most natural fit, but VS Code already binds it to its own Move Line command. An extension can't override a built-in default, so you have to claim the key in your personal keybindings (which always win). Open Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON) from the Command Palette and add:

[
  { "key": "alt+up",   "command": "dynalistMover.moveLinesUp",          "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" },
  { "key": "alt+up",   "command": "-editor.action.moveLinesUpAction",   "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" },
  { "key": "alt+down", "command": "dynalistMover.moveLinesDown",        "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" },
  { "key": "alt+down", "command": "-editor.action.moveLinesDownAction", "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" }
]

The - lines remove the built-in Move Line binding so only Dynalist Mover responds. To rebind to anything else, search for "Dynalist Mover" in the Keyboard Shortcuts UI.

Prefer Ctrl+↑/↓? (Dynalist-style)

Dynalist itself uses Ctrl+↑/↓. In VS Code that key only collides with one editor command — scrollLineUp/Down (scroll the editor by a single line) — so claiming it is just as easy. Add this to your personal keybindings JSON:

[
  { "key": "ctrl+up",   "command": "dynalistMover.moveLinesUp",   "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" },
  { "key": "ctrl+up",   "command": "-scrollLineUp",               "when": "editorTextFocus" },
  { "key": "ctrl+down", "command": "dynalistMover.moveLinesDown", "when": "editorTextFocus && !editorReadonly" },
  { "key": "ctrl+down", "command": "-scrollLineDown",             "when": "editorTextFocus" }
]

The many other Ctrl+↑/↓ entries you may see in the Keyboard Shortcuts list (lists, terminal, suggestion widgets, etc.) have different when contexts and won't interfere with editing. The only thing you give up is one-line scrolling in the editor, which PageUp/PageDown, the mouse wheel, and Ctrl+Home/End cover anyway.

Settings

Development

npm install
npm run compile     # or: npm run watch

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.

License

MIT